MIDTOWN —The group that runs the troubled Harlem anti-violence program staffed by ex-gang members is examining all of its current employees to make sure they've left the lifestyle behind.
It follows allegations that active gang members were still involved and possibly dealing drugs.
Currently, ex-gang members being considered for jobs with the New York Mission Society are interviewed by a panel that may include Health Department officials, local police, social service providers and community leaders.
"This is an important first step," New York Mission Society spokesman Charlie King said of the change.
"Those interviews will take place before a strengthened community and law enforcement panel that will recommend what individuals are qualified and capable of performing those jobs," he added.
"Current gang activity and participation in illegal activity would be obvious automatic disqualifiers from employment with the New York City Mission Society," King continued.
The organization — a 200-year-old social services agency — operates Harlem SNUG based on the Cure Violence model, which treats violence like a disease that can be treated.
It relies on ex-gang members as "credible messengers" to stage mediations to prevent shootings and try to convince people to leave the gang lifestyle.
But it has come under scrutiny from the city and prosecutors after DNAinfo New York reported that a former employee at the program had been shot and employees feared there would be retaliation.
One former employee, Shawanna Vaughn, was placed under police protection and relocated.
In addition to the allegations that members of the program were active gang members who were recruiting others into gangs and selling drugs, a supervisor at one of the sites was also recently arrested for allegedly brutally beating a fellow worker in a domestic violence incident.
The victim says New York Mission Society ignored a restraining order and had her work in the same building as her alleged abuser. New York Mission Society denies the accusation.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is investigating the shooting of the former employee and illegal activity at Harlem SNUG. The Bronx District Attorney's Office is handling the domestic violence case.
The Harlem SNUG site is one of 14 located in some of the city's most violent neighborhoods where Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council are investing $13 million to help reduce gun violence.
The effort is part of de Blasio's Gun Violence Crisis Management System, which was announced by the mayor and the City Council in August 2014.
The Mission Society receives $1.4 million in funding from the Mayor's Fund for New York City, the Department of Health, the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the City Council to operate two Harlem sites and one location in The Bronx.
King said the aim of the New York Mission Society is to continue to strengthen its program, particularly as the warm weather approaches — which sometimes correlates with an increase in shootings. The effort is of critical importance as the city is experiencing an uptick in shootings.
The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice has acknowledged that the Mission Society has hiring and employee management problems. They have increased their oversight of Mission Society and the Department of Health, which oversees the program, according to city officials.
The organization is headed up by Elsie McCabe Thompson, former head of the Museum for African Art and wife of former comptroller and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson.
Last week, de Blasio said he was unaware of the problems at New York Mission Society but endorsed the model the program uses.
"We certainly have had some real success with former gang members getting their life together and then being agents of peace," the mayor said at an unrelated press conference.
But the Rev. Vernon Williams, a gang expert who works to get young people out of the lifestyle, said that New York Mission Society is not equipped to run this sort of program.
"Mission needs the expertise to be able to talk to people on the ground or deal with the NYPD gang intelligence unit to create a program without active gang members," said Williams.
"If they don't know how to get that basic information on an ongoing basis then they can't do this work."
